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Kosal Khiev had envisioned a very different kind of welcome to the UK.

The Phnom Penh-based spoken word artist, chosen to represent Cambodia in Poetry Parnassus, a cultural offshoot of the London Olympics, was detained by immigration officials moments after landing at Heathrow Airport.

After spending nearly 24 uncertain hours at an immigration holding site on the outskirts of London, Kosal was due to be released late last night, his London-based road manager Linda Kwon told the Post.

She added that he will still be able to perform as planned, though she was uncertain if any conditions were attached to his release.

According to a website affiliated with the artist, immigration officials are holding onto his passport for the time being.

Kosal, whose family fled to California as refugees when he was a child, was deported to Cambodia from the US last year after completing a jail sentence for an attempted murder conviction in his adolescence.
Speaking earlier in the day from the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre, Kosal told the Post that he was detained for “failing to give satisfactory answers to an immigration officer”.

“I never lied on my visa application,” Kosal said. “I told the truth, even when I came here I told the truth. I have a certificate of sponsorship – why I was here, what I’m doing here, all the contact numbers of the festivals, the organisers, who they can call. If anyone wanted more background, all they had to do was go to my website or the Poetry Parnassus website.”

Kosal’s road manager Kwon arrived at Heathrow on Saturday evening to collect Kosal and accompanying filmmaker Masahiro Sugano, only to learn that the poet had been detained.

“When Masahiro finally came through, nearly two hours after the flight came in, he told me Kosal was being detained for further questioning,” Kwon said. “They had taken his passport and all the documents he had provided, but he wasn’t being told anything either.”

Since his arrival in Cambodia, Kosal has gained acclaim as the Kingdom’s first spoken word poet and was invited in April to represent Cambodia at the London festival, lauded as the world’s largest gathering of international poets and set to take place from June 26 to July 1.

According to Anida Yoeu Ali, co-founder of Studio Revolt, the multimedia collaborative where Kosal is an artist-in-residence, UK immigration authorities claim the visa he was issued by the British Embassy in Phnom Penh may have been issued incorrectly, and that he would likely be detained for at least 36 hours.

Kosal is scheduled to perform at Colnbrook later this week as part of a poetry workshop organised by the English chapter of PEN International, a writing fellowship promoting freedom of expression. After being transferred from Heathrow, Kosal was processed at Colnbrook at 4 in the morning.

He had not slept and was in a state of emotional distress when contacted by the Post at 11am London time.

“I’m being treated as a criminal, when I’ve done nothing wrong, by a country that invited me. I broke down last night, and I was so at a loss for everything,” he said.

“In a lot of ways, I wish I was there now. If I knew this would happen, I would’ve never come. It’s just a process of having to pay for my past and it’s okay, I get that,” said Kosal.

“I just thought me coming here was something that was going to look beyond my past and give me a chance to tell people that at least whatever life throws at you, you can still overcome that. And now, I don’t know if that’s even possible anymore. I feel so helpless right now.”

Attempts to reach Kosal following news of his expected release were unsuccessful.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Phnom Penh said he could not comment on the status of Kosal’s visa as a matter of policy.

A spokesman from English PEN declined to comment. The UK Border Agency could not be reached.
To contact the reporters on this story: Diana Montaño and Sean Gleeson at ppp.lifestyle@gmail.com

Exiled Cambodian Refugee from Santa Ana Detained Before Cultural Olympic Performance in London

Cambodian spoken word artist and former Santa Ana resident Kosal Khiev, who is scheduled to perform at the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad this week, was detained by British immigration officials overnight after landing at Heathrow Airport on Saturday evening.

Khiev was invited to the Poetry Parnassus, which is part of the London 2012 Festival, as a representative from Cambodia to perform his spoken word pieces involving his struggles as a Cambodian refugee and his experiences with the American prison system. Khiev was placed in a detention cell at the airport on Saturday evening and later moved to Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre on Sunday, although his representatives at Studio Revolt say he had a valid visa.

Khiev has since been released, but immigration officials are reportedly withholding his passport pending further investigation. Oddly enough, he is scheduled to perform at the very same detention center where he was held later this week.

Khiev was born in a refugee camp during the brutal genocidal Khmer Rouge regime that led to the deaths of over 2 million Cambodians by forced labor, starvation and routine execution. His family was brought over to the United States by a church sponsor in North Carolina when he was a year old. Like many Cambodian refugees, his family ended up in a crime-ridden area, which in their case was the Minnie Street neighborhood in Santa Ana.

Khiev was involved in a gang fight at the age of 16, which led to an attempted murder conviction and 14 years in prison. While he was incarcerated, he found solace in spoken word poetry and perfected his craft behind bars.

Khiev, now 32 years old, was deported to Cambodia last year after he finished his sentence. Although the U.S. granted immunity to Cambodian refugees in the aftermath of the war (partially, some have argued, because of our role in the conflict), immigration laws strip away permanent residency status if an immigrant has committed a major crime.

Since arriving in Cambodia, Khiev has sought to raise awareness about deportation and incarceration issues through his spoken word poetry. He is currently the resident artist of the Phnom Penh-based collaborative media lab Studio Revolt.

Khiev was selected from 6,000 nominated poets to represent Cambodia as a Cultural Olympiad at the London 2012 Festival. Poets from each country competing in the 2012 games are expected to come together at London’s Southbank Centre, the UK’s largest arts center, for a week-long literary festival leading up to the game’s opening ceremony

Khiev told his manager Anida Yoeu Ali at Studio Revolt that he was told he was being detained for failing to give satisfactory answers to an immigration officer and for possible mistakes on his visa application. Ali said she helped Khiev fill out the application to ensure correctness, and disclosed his past in the process.

Southbank Centre released a statement saying Khiev was released on a temporary basis to carry out his part in the event and they are working with authorities to understand the reason for his detention.

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